Who is Rushil Ugarkar? Know the 22-year-old who helped MI New York lift the MLC 2025

It was during a practice game between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Gujarat Titans (MI) when Rohit Sharma asked a young Rushil Ugarkar, the 22-year-old, who came as the support bowler for the Mumbai Indians, to set the field for Virat Kohli from the television screen. The youngster felt that the veteran batter would perhaps get out at long leg, and guess what, two balls later, it happened exactly.

Later, Rohit Sharma broke down Phil Salt’s game plan to Rushil Ugarkar in a 15-minute session in detail, and that brought the cricketing brain of the right-arm pacer into the light. He was delivered by one of the best captains of the shortest format. Ugarkar warmed up well with a five-run penultimate over against the Washington Freedom before the start of the season.

See Also: [WATCH] Rushil Ugarkar defends 12 runs in final over to win MLC 2025 for MI New York

The method was excellent for the 22-year-old, who set a 6-3 field, which shows his belief in the plan and execution of it. He has the wish to bowl fast, but what stands out for any player in world cricket is how they keep their ego aside, as Ugarkar did against the LA Knight Riders when he went with the slower deliveries.

Who is Rushil Ugarkar? The 22-year-old winged under Rohit Sharma’s guidance

After being smashed for a boundary off the very first ball, Ugarkar had enough game plan for the Knight Riders’ contest. He pulled back the pace to 110s in the next 20 balls of the spell and kept nagging the off-cutters besides the variations to fox the powerful international batters like Sherfane Rutherford. During a game when Shimron Hetmyer smashed 97* in a chase of 238, the spring chicken ended with 1/29.

22 Year Old Rushil Ugarkar defended 12 runs in the Final over against Maxwell and Phillips. 🔥pic.twitter.com/RIGojIZJiB

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) July 14, 2025

Ugarkar, born in St. Louis in Missouri, has featured in only 10 MLC 2025 games this season and has no international experience as of now. He finished this edition with 11 wickets at an average of 24.45 and a strike rate of just under 18 with an economy rate of 8.49, thanks to the bowling figure of 3/19 in an innings.

He had a huge job of defending 12 runs in the final over of the season against Glenn Maxwell and Glenn Phillips. Any young bowler could easily get exposed against two veteran international campaigners, but that wasn’t the case with Rushil, who also dismissed the Australian batter and scripted a five-run victory for the New York side.